A Place for Student Artists: Melanie Kress’s '09 "Potluck"
May 4, 2009
The opening reception of "Dialogues" as experienced in New York and Angers, France
When we think of a potluck, a gathering of friends with an assortment of homemade dishes often comes to mind. For Barnard senior Melanie Kress, potluck is more than just a meal; it is a figure of speech. Kress, a double major in Visual Arts and Art History, is the founder of an artistic initiative titled "Potluck," which offers not only professional space for student artists to showcase their work, but also a new way to conceptualize art. The "Potluck" series challenges both the artist and the viewer to reexamine the traditional understandings of creation, consumption and discussion. Each of Kress's "Potluck" exhibits includes a gathering of both art and food, encouraging a sense of community.
The sixth "Potluck" exhibit, "Dialogues", is on display at Columbia University's Watson Hall until May 8th, and features work from 15 student artists who are based in New York and France. Kress paired each artist with an overseas counterpart, creating a cross-continental dialogue. These pairings result in an exhibition that, as Kress explains, "engages with issues of communication, translation, mediation and separation."
 Melanie Kress '09 with 'Brother' a piece in the "Dialogues" exhibit
At the opening of "Dialogues", the cross-continental conversation was real. On April 25, the exhibition debuted in two locations: both at Columbia University and at SODA+Ecole Supérieure des Beaux Arts d'Angers in Angers, France. A video-conference brought the two locations together, with a brunch in New York and a simultaneous dinner in France. Artists and viewers on both ends of the Atlantic waved, chatted and celebrated, creating yet another dialogue.
The New York exhibition, which will run through May 9, features works in all types of media, including audio and video elements. Each piece provokes the viewer to think about the communication, or the lack of communication, between the American artists, hailing from Barnard, Columbia, the School of Visual Arts, New York University and Rhode Island School of Design, and their internationally-based partners in Europe.
While studying abroad in Berlin during the summer of 2008, Kress worked at Schalter, a project space founded in 2006 by artist Ryan Weber. There, she helped Weber run the space beginning as an intern, eventually becoming his apprentice. Kress sees her experience abroad as valuable background for her work today. "My work with Weber allowed me to see that, for Dialogues, the conversations themselves are one of the most important aspects of the project, and one of my primary subjects of interest, curatorially, critically, and in my own work as an artist as well."
 A brunch takes place at Columbia University while vistors to the SODA+Ecole Supérieure des Beaux Arts d'Angers dine.
Kress began the "Potluck" series in 2007 after realizing that student artists lacked a professional space to showcase their work. Earlier exhibitions in the series centered on themes of creation, ritual, commodity and fetish. Kress sees "Dialogues" as an integral part of her development. She explained, "I do have a very strong sense of how I would like to organize my own art space, who I would like to run it with, and what kind of work I would like to show." In particular, she noted the Program Director of Barnard's Visual Arts department, Joan Snitzer, who acted as a mentor to Kress. "[She is] always acting as my primary advocate in seeking advice and assistance from the college as a whole," said Kress.
After graduation, Kress plans to move to Philadelphia to continue her artistic explorations. There, she will run a small film and video screening space in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of the city with two other friends. After curating six successful student exhibitions, Kress sees the "Potluck" initiative as an important reference for future endeavors. "This project has given me the final boost of confidence to believe that I am more than capable of founding and maintaining this space."
"Potluck Dialogues" runs until May 8 at Watson Hall (located at 612 115th Street between Broadway and Riverside Drive). On May 9th, "Dialogues" will culminate in a video screening and round table discussion with the artists at Artists Space in New York (located at 38 Greene Street) and Bétonsalon in Paris. For more information about "Potluck", visit www.btwpotluck.com.
—Allegra Panetto '09 |
